Perseus Academic: Always from Somewhere Else by Marjorie Agosín

In the tradition of her critically acclaimed memoir of her mother, A Cross and a Star, Marjorie Agosin writes the life of her father, Moises Agosin, a doctor, scientist, and classical pianist whose life reflects the lives of so many Jews of his generation, who were destined to be always refugees, always others—always from somewhere else.

In Always From Somewhere Else, Agosin’s homage to her father becomes much more than a simple life story; it is a captivating and moving meditation on the boundaries of national and cultural identities, the meanings of exile and home, and the legacies of storytelling, memory, and love.

In this beautifully composed tribute to the life of her father, Marjorie Agosín first describes the flight of her grandparents, Abraham and Raquel from the war-ravaged and increasingly anti-Semitic Russia of 1917. They lived as refugees in Istanbul and Marseilles, where Moisés was born, before settling with their three sons in Quillota, Chile. In vivid detail, Agosín contrasts the beauty of the Chilean countryside with the ugliness of the entrenched anti-Semitism that made her father a permanent outsider… . Agosín paints a moving portrait of a man who, despite his love for his family, his work, and classical music, was, like herself, marked at the core of his identity as a wandering exile.—Publishers Weekly

This is a haunting work of extraordinary grace and depth.—Claribel Alegria

Marjorie Agosín is author of many volumes of poetry, fiction, and essays. She is winner of the Letras do Oro Prize and the Latino Literature Prize, and is chair of the Spanish department at Wellesley College.

Elizabeth Rosa Horan is an essayist, translator, and director of comparative studies in literature at Arizona State University.